Maintain. Hardline. Kopimi.

Today news reached us that we didn’t get the appeal the TPB case to the supreme court.

We’re not surprised by this. The previous court cases has been filled of corruption. From having the minister of justice pressured by the US to illegally make a case of TPB, through the police officer responsible for the investigation (Jim Keyzer) “just happened” to get a job at Warner Brothers the weeks before I myself got promoted from a witness to a suspect, to the judges in the court cases being either board members, or in one case the actual chairman of the board, for the swedish pro-copyright society, it was clear to us that the supreme court – where many of the judges make a lot of money on their own copyrights – would be hard to persuade to take the case. Even though most of the public would want the case tested there. Even though it’s one of the most important cases for all of the EU.

Sweden speaks well about caring about the Internets. They spend a lot of money and time on helping activists all around the world. But who are these people that they’re so proud of helping? TPB has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship. All of the people involved in TPB at some time have been involved in everything from famous leaks projects to aiding people in the arab spring. We’ve fought corruption all over the world. We’ve promoted equal opportunities to poor nations around the globe. We’ve crushed the monopoly on information. Our close ones, many who have helped building TPB, have been mentioned as possible winners of the nobel peace prize. I’m not bragging – I’m saying this to make sure that people understand who’s doing the right thing here. I haven’t seen the entertainment industry help anyone but themselves.

Sweden is not used to corruption. Or rather; Sweden is not used to actually seeing the corruption that is there. The society is built upon the view that everyone has high morals and ethics in the swedish legal systems. The globalization of the world has changed that.
The entertainment lobby has bullied Sweden around. And not only Sweden. We see this in legislations such as SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, IPRED, IPRED2, TPP, TRIPS, just to name a few. All of these legislations have the same goal – make sure that the control of the internets goes to the rich people that already have some sort of control outside of the internets.

I’m just one of many millions standing up against this. Even though the outcome (which we still haven’t reached) is not favorable for my personal situation, the end goal that we fight for is so much more important than some peoples personal struggles. I’ll live with not being rich – which is easy when you’re not rich anyhow – the rest of my life. I’ll live with whatever sentence I’ll get in the end – I’ll just finish my book. The fight goes on with or without me, I’m just a pawn. But at least I’m a pawn on the morally right side. I’m proud as hell of what I’ve done and I would not change my involvement in any way. I actually think I could have done much more for the fight. And I will.

Today I urge everyone to make sure that the entertainment industry does not profit from them anymore. Stop seeing their movies. Stop listening to their music. Make sure that you find alternative ways to culture. I’ve founded Flattr.com, which allows you to support people that create directly instead of going through the corrupt entertainment industry. Use it in solidarity to the creators, and to your fellow citizen. Or start a competitor. Spread and participate in culture. Remix, reuse, use, abuse. Make sure noone controls your mind. Create new systems and technology that circumvent the corruption. Start a religion. Start your own nation, or buy one. Buy a bus. Crush it to pieces.

63 comments ↓

I’m sure even those opposed to copyright infringement (or ‘enabling to’, ‘aiding in’) as an important method to share culture will agree with this: Whatever the outcome of the case is, it deserves being looked at on a European level.

Given all of the frequent attempts to “recoup lost profits” by introducing laws that restrict our liberty, now seems the perfect time to focus on independently-created entertainment.

Seeing a play off-off-off-Broadway (Philadelphia) produced and acted by people who are *really* passionate about their craft usually trumps big-budget, mainstream plays. Even when it’s bad, it’s good, if you know what I mean.

Same for art, literature, photography, video games, music, and movies.

You don’t have to dig deep to find the things that entertain and inspire you. Going independent and supporting the artists directly is a good way to combat these enormous companies.

Very well said! How much longer will we as a society live with setting the profits of the ultra rich and powerful over free speech, privacy, and the greatest tool we’ve ever had to fight all the big problems we as a species are up against?

Also stop buying any of their other shit. Think for example of the LOTR Lego everyone is fawning over these days. Yes, they look awesome, but the money goes in the corrupt pockets of Sony Pictures and helps destroy democracy and the internet, just as much as the money used to buy movies and music. The same goes for money you give for any of their other media, magazines, games, entertainment, and spin-off products.

Every dollar/euro/flattr is a vote. Who do you want to welcome as your new overlord?

Excellence in thought, word and deed, unknown friend. I’ve used your tools for some time and now I have a chance to say thank you. So, thank you.

I came the same conclusions about the “entertainment” biz that you did back in the 90’s and stopped buying their swill long ago. My money goes to small indie bands and other artists that I know will get every penny I spend on them rather than to some parasite in LA or NY.

I have more faith in the creative spirit of my fellow humans than I do the repressive nature of the walking undead that claim to own our ideas.

We all remember Mozart’s name. We don’t know the names of the people that were annoyed at him for breaking the Vatican’s “copyright” on Allegri’s “Miserere”.

Keep fighting the good fight. You have many friends. If nothing else, history will treat you better than the present is.

Ok, people are asking whether there will be some sort fundraising efforts so people can contribute for the fines you guys are supposed to pay . . . assuming everyone involved intends to pay up (seems like there’s not much choice now, right?)

So is there going to be a way to contribute? I think a lot of people want to help you guys out.

I’ll repost my comment without URLs while I wait for brokep to get the time to moderate it with URLs. Hope it’s not too annoying for you to have to delete this afterwards!

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Very well said! How much longer will we as a society live with setting the profits of the ultra rich and powerful over free speech, privacy, and the greatest tool we’ve ever had to fight all the big problems we as a species are up against?

I would like to add:

To stop buying their music try Jamendo, Bandcamp, and the CreativeCommons repository on Soundcloud

To stop buying their movies try Vodo.net

If you have more good alternatives, please contribute them on Reddit r/KillHollywood

Also stop buying any of their other shit. Think for example of the LOTR Lego everyone is fawning over these days. Yes, they look awesome, but the money goes in the corrupt pockets of Sony Pictures and helps destroy democracy and the internet, just as much as the money used to buy movies and music. The same goes for money you give for any of their other media, magazines, games, entertainment, and spin-off products.

Every dollar/euro/flattr is a vote. Who do you want to welcome as your new overlord?

Even though you probably don’t remember me, this whole situation reminds me of what you’ve taught me back in 1996 or so: the people behind all that corruption, those falsified and pre-set cases against TPB/freedom on the internet in general, can “sug min kuk”.

Yes, I still remember the Swedish you’ve taught me and I thought this was an applicable situation to re-use it

It should be clear to everyone now that the government of Sweden is corrupt, as are its courts. They are full of cronies and corrupt actors and should be disobeyed at every turn.

All of you who still believe in democracy have just had a world-wide wake up call. ACTA, SOPA, NDAA and its bastard siblings are right in your face, and like Morlocks in the dark you are stunned by their bright and dangerous light.

None of these pieces of legislation, the legislatures that drafted them and voted upon them, the governments that enforce them; none of them are legitimate. They have no moral authority over you. The people behind the curtain are entirely against you and they want to fleece and control you like dumb sheep.

All of you Swedes who harp on about your democracy, how it is so civilised and advanced; you are all idiots. A civilised society could never put Brokep into jail. It would never have developed the apparatus to attack TPB as it has. Despite all the evidence in front of you, you still support the idea of the State and democracy, with a religious fervour that makes all awake and thinking men sick to their stomachs.

What are you going to do now that Brokep is headed to Swedish prison? Are you going to sign a petition? Are you going to DDOS some State owned servers? The fact of the matter is none of you have any idea of what to do next. You have no strategies, no overview of the basic facts of all of this and are nothing more than cattle waiting to be rounded up and slaughtered.

You people had better wake up to the truth about ‘your society’ and then draw up plans to dismantle it permanently. If you do not do this, the TPB takedown is only the first of many and ever greater abuses that you are going to suffer.

You are not going to find your solution in the election of new pot bellied democracy boosting dullards with a different face and a set of ideas that are in tune with yours. The entire idea of democracy is a fraud and immoral; this is the fundamental truth that you need to come to terms with and address.

I sincerely hope that some of you have some balls and are ready to whisk Brokep and the others who are going to be kidnapped and locked up to a safe location. All the millions of anons out there, with the billion dollars they have at their command should be able to keep the admins of TBP out of the hands of the State indefinitely… oh wait, they can’t even keep themselves out of jail; how are they going to protect Brokep?

I hope that you are beginning to get a sense of the bigger picture and problem. No matter what you say online, no matter what server you take down or petition you sign, you are utterly powerless against the State as long as you stick to these same, tired, useless tactics of ‘opposition’.

Make no mistake. This is absolutely crucial. If you people cannot protect Brokep and the TPB staff, why should anyone else put their head up over the parapet to offer you the services that you should expect to see popping up on the internet? The risk is high, and as Brokep says himself, there is no money in it, so why should anyone literally risk their lives for you, if when the crunch comes, you cannot effectively rally to their defence?

In the end, the copyright monopoly is going to fall because they do not have the intellectual capacity to create business models that fit into the way the internet works. The question is not if they are going to fall, it is when. I say to you that Brokep should not be sacrificed because he was a pioneer. I say that if you prevent him from being put in jail, this will accelerate the fall of the copyright monopoly. I agree that there should be a world-wide boycott of the purchase of all copyright monopoly ‘intellectual property’ until the illegitimate sentences imposed on the TPB operators are rescinded.

You may have your own ideas about what to do about all of this. Fine. As long as what you do actually does something real and effective, its a good thing. If however, your ‘solution’ is more of the State, or replacing the evil men at the levers of the State with people who you like, then I am not with you and I hope that you are destroyed.

The State is the single unified enemy that we all face. Its cronies, enablers, apologists, hangers on and apparatus are the problem. Until you face this fact squarely, and design strategies to destroy it, Brokep and TPBs problems and sacrifices will have been for nothing.

I hope this case will get more publicity after the release of TPB AFK, which was scheduled after the final decision in this trial, right? Anyway, I’m sure Peter that there are a lot of people respecting your work and support your idea in several aspects as far as it’s possible to them. Therefore don’t give up and put all your thoughts about that into your book.

I think we can expect France will legalize piracy with Francois Hollande after April 2012, I’ll ping Helle Thorning Schmidt here in Denmark, I think Denmark should be first. Basically, everyone pay approx 50kr/month ($10/month) in taxes (through ISP or elsewhere) and that money then get distributed directly to content creators on the web (least to their intermediaries). That’s $120 billion per year for Europe+USA, plenty enough to pay for all the independent creators of movies, tv, music, ebooks, articles, photos, apps and more. In France they call it Licence Globale.

You have many people supporting you in The Netherlands! Ziggo and XS4all had to block TPB but luckily we have so many alternative ISP’s here of which most of them are ready to fight against the oppressors that want to limit our freedom of speech.

Thanks for all your work, thanks for the inspiration Brokep ! It’s VERY sad to hear that sweden justice is corrupted like mine (i live in Italy… u know…).
Keep fighting the good fight… we fight the same rude battle… best regards!

Kick a butt, Pirate Bay is an amazing website that truly spreads culture and knowledge. I’m glad to hear you guys aren’t going to jail. I hope you’re still able to visit Sweden without getting arrested though.

Some decades ago, Che Guevara was fighting for his people’s rights and freedom. He became the symbol of a revolution. I don’t know what will be the end of this story but I find many similarities between Peter and Che.

Peter, can you set up a a donation page somewhere? People are genuinely willing to help out and contribute towards costs. Anything we can do to keep you out of jail, we will do. I signed up for a flattr account and already donated, but it’s just one person and the amount is insignificantly small. Please set up something where people can start donating and sharing on Twitter, Facebook etc.